Time to catch up since April. In order to keep cool this summer, I've spent a lot of time sitting around San Diego Bay with it's cooling breezes. By doing so, I was able to photograph a lot of US and Foreign Naval Ships as they came in and went out of the Harbor. The US Navy had a major exercise off of Hawaii called Pacific Rim, and so a lot of US Navy ships from San Diego took part, and the Norwegians, Chileans, Mexicans, and other had ships coming to San Diego before departing for Hawaii. ThJapanese had also came for a visit with 3 of their training vessels.
The Planes of Fame had their annual air show, and again, another great performance, but the heat was just kicking my ass. I'm surprised, I made it back to my truck without heat stroke.
After that, was the new San Diego Air Show (formerly "Wings over Gillespi"), and it was a major disappointment. Just a boring show..
Now for the best and worst part. In July, I took off for Las Vegas to attend the Red Flag 14-3 exercise, and it was HOT! it was 107 on the runways, and Media Day got cancelled before it even started due to a security issue. The next day was my scheduled flight onboard a US Air Force KC-135. it was 107 degrees again on the runway, but with the plane sitting in the sun all morning, I entered into the aluminum body of the KCC-135 at 120 degrees, and they even had the main cargo door wide open. When it was time to take off, they closed the doors and we sat for over 30 minutes, waiting to take off. The temp soon rose to over 130 degrees. I honestly thought at this time, heat stroke was going to get me. After we took off and climbed to over 35,000 ft. It was much cooler,a nd I survived.
It's now September and lots of things are happening. Tomorrow, I will embark on the USS Nimitz to photograph some flight ops. looking forward to that. Also, I will be flying in another Air Force KC-135, photographing a C-17 late in the month, and the 2 days of flying with the Marines at their Fall WTI exercises, onboard a C-130 and a CH-53. I'm working aon a US Coast Guard story, but I'll leave that for the next update. Take care folks.
